


Spider-Man: Swinging Home

by Fanfan118



Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Action, Action/Adventure, Background Relationships, F/M, Friendship, Gen, High School, Irondad, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Tony Stark Coparenting Peter Parker, Protective May Parker (Spider-Man), Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Worried May Parker (Spider-Man), also Peter isn't going to have an easy time at all - Freeform, being a superhero is hard
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:00:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23774962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fanfan118/pseuds/Fanfan118
Summary: Swinging back after summer vacation, now with spider-powers and a secret identity, everything was going to be different for Peter Parker.But nothing turns out as expected for both for Spider-Man and Peter.Ever greater foes, a crime wave threatening to envelop the city, a hostile media, friends new and old, feelings he doesn’t understand, mountains of homework, money troubles, the watchful  eye of his mentor Mr. Stark and an aunt who is worried about him at every turn.Peter will have to deal with this and more, all while getting home in time for curfew.
Relationships: Harry Osborn & Peter Parker, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Ned Leeds & Harry Osborn & Peter Parker, Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker & Harry Osborn & Gwen Stacy & Ned Leeds, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	1. Last day of summer vacation

**Author's Note:**

> In this story I takes ideas from the MCU, the spectacular Spider-Man TV show, the comics and my own ideas and mix and match them to hopefully make a fun Spidey story! 
> 
> So, get ready for a spectacular Spidey adventure, true believers!
> 
> Excelsior!

**Issue 1 Swinging onto the scene**

The red and blue paint slowly dripped down the wall. 

Not his best work he had to admit, stashing the spray can back into his backpack. But it was already getting dark and he was rushing to get in one more tagging before the end of summer vacation.

He plugged in his  earphones  and with a quick look around, slipped out of the alley. Bobbing his head to the music, he made his way back onto the unfamiliar streets of Queens, past tall apartment buildings, shops, and underneath a subway bridge.

His uncle really gave him the best tips for spots, even if he had to use the subway getting there from Brooklyn. Not like his parents were going to find out. They wouldn’t be home for hours. Some gala night thing for a new police captain or something? He hadn’t really been paying attention. 

His dad had told him about six million times not to go roaming around. ‘ The streets are getting more dangerous with crime going up’, or some stupid stuff like that. 

Dangerous, he thought back to the graffiti of a mask he had sprayed and smiled. Yeah, right dangerous here, sure.

Of course, his dad was less than enthusiastic about Queens’ newest crime fighter. 

He was jogging by a streetlight, sticking one of the stickers he had drawn onto it when he suddenly heard a shrieking alarm pierce through the music from his earphones. His head snapped over and he saw the red lights of an alarm flashing from inside a jewelry store on the other side of the street. The shapes of two men appeared on top of the building, each with a bag over a shoulder. 

His first impulse was to run, just like his dad told him, but then he saw a red and blue blur dash through the air above him, headed for the building. 

“¡no es posible!” What are the chances that he’d actually see him?

Still not believing his luck, excitement won out over his fear. He got out his phone and rushed over to the other side, up a fire escape ladder to get a better view of what was going down. 

* * *

“Easy as taking candy from a baby!” The thug in the green striped shirt laughed, kicking in the door to the roof. “A million-buck candy!” 

“Are you kidding, Marko? Once the big man takes his cut for his fancy new equipment, we’ll be lucky to get a dime,” his partner in crime O'Hirn complained. 

They ran to the edge of the building.

“Just quit talkn’ and jump!” Marko held onto his loot bag tightly and prepared to jump. 

Then he suddenly heard a  _ thwip _ sound beside him.

“O’Hirn?” He turned around to see his partner spun up in a web, hanging from the radio tower on the building. 

“Having a late-night stroll, you two?” an annoying voice quipped. “Didn’t take you for the type, Marko.”

Flint Marko let out a frustrated moan. Just as he had expected, there was a figure in a red and blue suit squatting on the radio tower. 

“Not him again!” O’Hirn called, helplessly dangling in the air. “Wait till I get down from here, you freak!”

The costumed freakshow laughed at that, pulling at the web, making the thug spin in the air.

“Get over here you spandexed creep!” Marko yelled from the ground, getting into a fighting stance. This time that guy wouldn’t ruin his take!

“Much obliged.” The costumed weirdo jumped down with a somersault, landing directly in front of him. 

He tried hitting the creep with the bag full of diamonds, but he slipped out of the way effortlessly. 

"You know Marko, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you liked getting thrashed by me. What is this? Like the third time this summer?” 

“Arr!” he groaned, again unable to hit him, as he jumped out of the way. Frustrated, Marko threw away his loot bag and reached into his pocket. “Not this time you don’t! Wait till you get a load of this!”

He got out a small, strange-looking silver gun with a blue shining core and shot at him.

“Wow!” Just in the nick of time, the annoying spider-freak dodged out of the way. As the bullet flew, for a moment, it seemed to shine with a strange blue light.

“What garage sale did you get that from? That’s so flashy!” 

“Shut up!” Marko shot again.

And again, he dodged.

“Sorry, can’t play around anymore. School night.” Kneeling to aim, the freak shot a web. 

But it zipped straight past Marko. 

“Ha, miss!” He laughed, taking aim. “Got you now, web-creep!” Then he saw the web-head pull and heard a zipping noise from behind him.

“Oh,” was the last thing Flint Marco was able to mutter as his head turned before his loot back came flying back at him, hitting him in the head. 

* * *

“Woohoo!” He felt the air against his mask and saw Queens’ streets below, the buildings to his side flashing past as he went full speed.

_ That is how you made the best out of the last day of summer vacation! And just enough time to get home to May for dinner too. _

Tomorrow one of his teachers would probably make him write a two-thousand-word essay about how he spent his summer vacation. 

_ How I spend my summer vacation, by Peter Benjamin Parker _

_ I played lots of video games with Ned. Went to the national history museum with Aunt May. Texted a bunch with Harry. Binged watched an unhealthy amount of TV shows. And during the last week I noticed that Ms. Warren gave us homework over the summer, so I pulled an all-nighter for that. (Thanks for that btw, Ms. Warren…)  _

_ And the absolute best thing was that I got a brand-new internship at Stark industries! _

_ Other than that, standard summer vacation stuff. _

Something like that, but if he really wrote about what he did during his summer vacation, he wouldn’t need two thousand words. He would need exactly one awesome hyphenated one. 

_ Spider-Man _

And tomorrow he could tell exactly nobody about it and of course, he would need to keep Aunt May from finding out under all circumstances. 

_ Guess it’s all a bit give and take… _

He rounded a corner, going hard into the swing. Peter let go of the web and flew freely through the air, zipping over everything on the street beneath him.

_ Well, if it’s just keeping a secret in exchange for all of this! Nope, can’t think of anything better _


	2. Rise and shine, MidTown Science and Technology

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter’s first day at MidTown high after summer vacation!

_ Maybe the sound would just decide to disappear? _ Peter’s foggy mind hoped.

But it just got louder and louder and soon it felt like something was violently hitting him over the head, over and over again.

Peter groaned loudly. Even pushing the pillow against his ears did nothing thanks to his heightened senses, which made this literal torture.

His arm instinctively moved to punch his phone to get it to stop, but he stopped himself at the last second.

His OsBerry phone was already ancient technology and featured a large crack across the screen. Begging Aunt May for a new phone was the last thing he wanted. 

Moaning again, Peter turned it off, carefully this time.

Not that it did him much good. His body was sore all over. Being awake now felt like a kick in the stomach.

Just keeping his eyes open took as much energy as moving his beat-up muscles. Maybe he had overdone it a bit last night as Spider-Man, but it had been the last day of summer vacation.

Even when he halfheartedly looked at the time on his phone, his mind couldn’t supply a single good reason to get up…like at all…

_ There should be a thing where every bad thing you stop, you get to have one day off from school. _

_ And how many bad things did he stop yesterday? Two…maybe three? _

_ Either way, there should totally be a law… _

__

* * *

“This is bad! This is bad! This is really, really bad!” Peter cried, out of breath from running around the apartment, pulling one of his science pun t-shirts over his head and frantically looking for all the stuff he needed.

“Calculator?” May asked, just having finished throwing on her nurse uniform and going around the room, looking for anything else she needed for work.

“Right!” Peter said, getting it from the living room table and throwing it into his bag.

_ That should be all…yeah…probably…definitely _

“History textbook?” May asked. “And where are my damn shoes!”

_ He knew he had forgotten something! Where had he put that? _

_ Great, being late on the first day after summer doesn’t look bad at all… _

“Good news! Found the shoes,” May shouted. “Brushed your teeth yet?”

No. He totally hadn’t, but he could do that while also looking for his books. That wouldn’t be a problem, or at least he hoped.

“Ymmou gmmt ymmr lummch?” Peter said, toothbrush in his mouth and kneeling on the floor, looking for his book under the sofa.

“What?”

“Your lunch?” Peter repeated. “You don’t get lunch in the hospital cafeteria on Mondays.”

May froze. She muttered something inaudible and Peter knew she was trying to keep herself from swearing loudly.

May went into the kitchen and Peter got up and rushed into his room, continuing the search.

“I’m making meatloaf tonight. Don’t be late,” May called from the kitchen. 

That made Peter shudder. May’s meatloaf had a  _ certain _ reputation.

“I won’t be late Aunt May!” Peter called, getting back to searching. He could worry about the dinner problem later.

There it was! 

He wasn't even going to begin to think about how the book had found its way into his comic book collection.

As soon as he got his hands on it, he ran into the bathroom, finished brushing his teeth and then he was dashing for the hallway.

“See you later, Aunt May!” Peter cried, already standing in the doorway.

May came running out of the kitchen, her expression like she had just remembered something super important. “What about breakfast?” she asked, worry in her voice.

“I’ll grab some on the way! Love you!”

May thought for a moment. “Okay,” she said reluctantly. “Love you too, sweetie. Text me later please and be careful,” May said like she had done every morning for months.

“Promise!” Peter called, running down the hallway.

* * *

Stuffing his suit into his backpack, Peter emerged out of the conveniently placed secluded alley near school.

Web slinging really made that whole getting to school thing so much less stressful. Even with oversleeping he got there just as all the other students started coming in.

Peter joined the stream of students flooding through the schoolyard and towards the main entrance.

The last time he had gone through that large main door with the MidTown logo featuring the mascot tiger above it, was the day after the end of year field trip to OsCorp.

Back then, he had stormed out of the school, overjoyed that summer had finally come after a seemingly endless year of studying, exams and bullying. Back then he had been Peter Parker, known schoolwide as a nerd and a loser.

Little did anyone know, including Peter himself, about what really happened on that end of year school trip to OsCorp.

_ Yeah _ , Peter thought as he entered the door, as he had at least a couple of hundred times.  _ That field trip really did turn everything on its head. Not just the Spider-Man thing. _

Peter shook that thought from his mind.  _ What matters now is Spidey and how he’s going to change things _

He was strolling along the busy corridors to his locker. It was loud and messy, all around him people were running to class, talking about their holidays and packing stuff from their lockers. Someone was flying a small drone through the hallway until Ms. Warren shut that down.

He made his way past all the usual anti-drug and bullying posters (as if those ever did anything). There were also posters for all kinds of school events and activities and a few fact posters they had to make about famous scientists like Bruce Banner.

While he walked, a familiar dramatic intro played as all the monitors around the hallway turned on. He knew a poorly edited montage of pictures from last year was flying across the screen. Peter looked up just as the title sequence ended, with the MidTown logo emerging into view as a grand finale.

“Rise and shine, MidTown Science and Technology!” Betty Brand, co-host of the student broadcast said, staring directly into the camera. “We hope you had a fantastic summer!” She waved to the viewers.

“Y-yeah, and just like last year, we from the, eh, MidTown student news club will be…” The other co-host Jason Ionello struggled for words, before obviously looking to the teleprompter on his right. “Ahh, providing you with live coverage of all-important MidTown events.”

“So, what will happen this year in MidTown? The highest test scores in the state? Trophies for our sports and academic clubs? Hopefully not a repeat of last year's lasagna incident in the cafeteria. Whatever this year brings, you will hear about it on MidTown news!”

_ Oh, I know what it will bring for me all right,  _ Peter thought to himself _ , this is going to be my year. Goodbye high school life as a loser. It’s going to be awesome. _

Peter went to his locker to put away a bunch of stuff he didn’t need and also to stash two vials of web fluid.  _ Never know when that will come in handy. _

“That was soooooo awesome! Did you see this new vid yet! That guy has the best life ever!” Sound from a phone blurred into his ear. Peter turned around to see an amateur video from his fight yesterday evening shoved into his face.

“Hi Ned,” Peter said. “What’s up?”

“And then that guy with the gun went, ‘Got you now’.” Ned dramatically reenacted the scene, pointing with his fingers. “And Spider-Man was like.”

Ned made the web-shooting hand gesture, completely ignorant of the fact that anyone might find it weird.

“Yeah, I guess that Spider-Man guy is kind of good,” Peter said, failing to keep the smugness out of his voice.

“Good?! Peter, Squirrel Girl is kind of good. Spidey? It’s only a matter of time before he leads the Avengers!”

“Maybe.”

Peter could dream. If this really was his year, why not? Of course, he would need to really impress Mr. Stark for that, and all the other Avengers would need to want him to join too.

The bell rang, taking Peter out of his fantasy of shaking hands with Captain America and Ned out of a rant Peter hadn’t listened to.

* * *

The first few lessons were the standard beginning of school year stuff, with introductions for new teachers and students and overviews of the courses they would have this year.

After that Peter and Ned went to the cafeteria for lunch.

“That new girl with the glasses was kind of cute, right?” Ned asked.

“Yeah, I guess.” Peter hadn’t really been paying attention. During the downtime he thought about a plan he had worked on all summer.

Then Peter spotted what he had been looking for. Two girls talking in the middle of the cafeteria. “Hang on for a second, Ned,” Peter said, heading over to them.

“What? Peter?” Ned noticed where he was going. “Peter? Stop. What are you- Oh, great. You’re doomed.”

Peter ignored that.

_ All right _ , he had thought all this through, this year was going to be different. He just needed to do what he had planned out in his head.

“Hi, what’s up?” Peter said, walking up to the girls and trying to sound casual.

“Oh, eh, hi. Peter, right? What’s up? How were your holidays?” the black-haired girl said.

Liz, student president, captain of like five different clubs including the academic decathlon team, cheerleader, and overall the most awesome and popular girl in school.

“I just wanted to ask, you know since we’ve met at the academic decathlon last year and since you’re, like the best team captain ever, if you would…“

“Would what, Peter?” she asked curiously.

“You know, you and me, you know.”

“I really don’t, Peter.”

Peter straightened himself. “You know how the homecoming dance is soon and I just wanted to ask if you could, eh, if you would go with-“

“Liz! What are you doing!” the blonde girl beside Liz cried in a shrill voice. Her face looked like Peter had broken some sort of natural order just by talking to them.

_ Yeah, that’s Sally Avril alright _

“Stop trying to talk to us normal people, creep!”

“I-I was just…”

Peter shuddered as he felt half the cafeteria turning to look at the drama.

“Let’s go Liz!” she said, grabbing Liz by the arm and storming off.

“Bye Peter, see you at decathlon practice,” Liz said as she was being dragged off, giving him an apologetic smile.

_ Well, that went… _

Before Peter had a moment to think about it, he paused. A tingling in the back of his neck.

“Watch where you’re going!”

Peter turned around, but it was too late. He only saw a blur and heard a loud thud. A skinny brown-haired boy had fallen face-first onto the cafeteria floor, his lunch crashing spectacularly into his face.

Laughter echoed through the cafeteria.

Peter rushed over. “Are you okay?”

Harry Osborn. He was, along with Ned, Peter’s best friend, and he was awesome at building Legos and The Legend of Zelda trivia.

Also, he was the son of Norman Osborn and the sole heir to one of the largest companies in the world, which led the field in too many areas of science, business, and commerce to count.

He was lying on the ground, his freckled face, green shirt, and a brown vest covered in tomato sauce, although his face would probably still have been red from embarrassment even without the tomato sauce.

“I’m fine. Thank you,” he almost squeaked as Peter helped him up.

Ned had also come over. “Dude how did you…”

_ Hang on. _

Peter’s eyes narrowed on a group of students close by.

_ Flash Thompson and all his friends. Of course.  _ They were laughing the hardest out of everyone in the room.

“Shut up, Flash!” Peter rushed over to him. “You totally just tripped him!”

Flash’s smug face didn’t lose one bit of humor at that. “Not my fault if he doesn’t look where he’s going,” he said, with fake innocence.

“Let’s go, Peter,” Ned urged from behind him.

Peter was shaking with anger.

_ I’m Spider-Man, I casually beat up criminals, like actual bad guys. I wouldn’t let Flash get away with stuff like that _

All the times Flash had gotten away with it flashed before him, which was basically all of Peter’s life.

“You should listen to him, Parker,” Flash warned. Peter just stood there angrily, trying to think of something to throw back at Flash’s insults. Flash didn’t waste any time in turning the tables on him. “Or do you want to embarrass yourself even more after the show back there?”

_ Oh great. Flash had seen that _

Peter suddenly felt very aware that basically the whole cafeteria had their eyes on them.

“Just-just shut up, Flash!” Peter repeated, struggling for a good retort.

“Don’t take your anger over getting your heart broken out on me Parker, I can’t do anything about the fact that geeks like you don’t get girls. Especially not if they creep them out like that.”

Flash's whole group was laughing and a few other people around him joined them. 

“I won’t let you go around bullying people anymore.”

“Oh ho!” Flash chuckled, standing taller and looking down at Peter. “Puny Parker suddenly got guts? What are you going to do - cry about it?”

Peter tried to hold Flash’s look. “I’m-I’m…”

_ I’m Spider-Man! Yeah, but he couldn’t exactly say that. _

“You’re just embarrassing Parker. Maybe you will feel better if you tell yourself that fake story about you having a Stark industry internship like you told everyone last year.”

“It’s not fake…” But Peter's protest didn’t carry over the laughter.

“What kind of loser do you have to be to invent stories like that, right?” Flash turned to ask his group. “Everyone, Tony Stark is Parker’s imaginary friend!”

Now it felt like every student in the cafeteria had finally joined them in laughing at him.

His words of protest stuck in his throat. Peter’s legs felt like jelly and his heart was pounding. He needed to do something. 

Ned grabbed him by the shoulder and got him out of there, his head hanging low in defeat.

“Have a good cry on biggie's shoulder,” Flash called after them.

“Don’t listen to him, Peter,” Ned said as they walked away. “Like, at all. Flash’s a total idiot. I think it was awesome what you tried with Liz, although she is way out of our league Peter, like light-years. Still, nice try.”

Peter looked at Ned, he knew he was at least trying to encourage him.

They sat down at a table in one of the corners of the room, as far away from what happened as possible. Still, Peter felt the occasional stare or snickering directed his way.

_ That will give Flash material for weeks _

It all went the complete opposite of what he had expected. Over the holidays, he had imagined so many times what it would be like to ask Liz out and put Flash in his place, now that he was Spider-Man.

“Hi,” came a quiet squeaky voice after they sat a few minutes in silence.

Harry, now cleaned up as best as he could, had quietly made his way to their table and sat down next to Ned. His expression was about as low as Peter felt. He couldn’t blame him. Peter had diverted the attention a bit, that moment must have sucked for Harry too.

“Thanks for that back there, Pete. S-sorry.”

“No problem, and it’s Flash who should be sorry,” Peter said bitterly.

“So, how was L.A. Harry?” Ned asked, obviously trying to break the somber mood.

“Oh, eh, it was fine. My father had a lot of important meetings and conferences and things like that, so I mostly stayed in the penthouse and played video games.”

This was another thing Peter had imagined differently. Meeting Harry after not having seen him all summer because his dad had some important OsCorp stuff on the east coast.

“But my father said that he’ll be staying here from now on. He said something about the future being in New York.” Harry shrugged.

“I bet it has something to do with some crazy new science stuff!” Ned said, excitedly. “Do you know anything? I mean you live right there in the tower, right?”

“I-I don’t really understand those things and my father doesn’t really tell me anything, so…” Harry trailed off, smiling, but rubbing his neck nervously.

“Not like that matters,” Peter quickly said. “It’s okay.”

“You’ve got to tell us if you find out something!” Ned spoke even faster, seemingly not having heard either of them. “I mean, your dad is the guy who has a tower with his name on it in the middle of the city that’s as tall as the Avengers’.” Ned waving his arms wildly. “I would  _ so _ give everything to switch places with-au!”

Peter lightly elbowed Ned in the side. “Ned. Calm down. His dad is Norman Osborn,  _ whatever _ .”

Now Ned was an awesome friend, but sometimes Peter just wanted to web his mouth shut.

Peter looked at Harry, who had his head hanging low and Ned’s eyes followed him.

“O-okay, I think it's just cool…” Ned mumbled.

Eventually they decided that the coast was clear enough for them to actually get themselves lunch. Of course, they didn’t exactly get anything good being so late.

Peter slogged through the rest of his lessons. He avoided everyone except Ned and Harry because of course, the story of his embarrassing run-in with both Liz and Flash spread around the school like wildfire.

Sitting in Ms. Warren’s science class, Peter was staring out the window across the football field and at two buildings in the distance.

Occasionally he heard whispers behind him and felt the looks in his direction. He tried everything he could not think about how Flash and his friends got all the material they needed for the rest of the school year on just day one.

Instead he imagined what it would be like swinging between the two buildings in the distance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that’s chapter two, I hope you enjoyed! Leave a comment telling me what you thought, if you like.  
> New update next week, with a little more Spider-Man action. Until then stay frost!


	3. First real supervillain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, these next two chapters have a few scenes that are similar to scenes in Spider-Man Homecoming, but I tried to put my own spin on them to make it stand out enough. After these chapters the story will not feature scenes that closely inspired again, I promise.  
> I also decided to post two chapters to make up for that (=  
> I hope you enjoy!

“Hey, is this anyone’s bike?” Spidey asked, holding up the bike. The guy who had just tried to steal it was webbed to a wall behind him, after a not so spectacular chase through Queens’ sidewalks.

After the chase, Peter had completely lost the bike’s original owner, and all the people he asked just walked past and ignored him.

Eventually Peter just gave up. He stuck a note from  _ your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man _ explaining the situation on to the bike for the police who would soon arrive and swung off.

Pretty normal stuff today. He enjoyed helping the people of Queens, he really did. Grand theft of bicycles, helping people with directions, and maybe even a small-time robbery, but after earlier today he could have really used some action.

He tried not to think about it, but this school day was the very definition of a disaster. It had all gone so differently in his head.

Well, at least he had helped a couple of people as Spider-Man today and he was going to get a free meal - he, Ned and Harry had agreed to meet at the café near OsCorp Tower since Harry always got everything free there. 

_ So maybe things could still turn out okay today _

Suddenly his phone buzzed in his pocket. Peter landed on a nearby roof to have a look.

**_May_ **

_ Everything okay? How was your first day? Be careful and see you at dinner. Love you Peter! _

**_Peter_ **

_ I’m OK. Hanging out with Ned and Harry later. School kind of sucked. Love u 2 and see u later. _

Over the summer, May had made it a habit to text him. A lot. She also told him to text her, and she was scary mad when he forgot. She never got mad with other stuff like homework or keeping his room clean or anything. 

He texted her when he got out of school, when he was over at Ned’s and of course when he was at the Stark internship, though really he was out being Spider-Man.

He sighed, putting his phone away.

_ It’s not like she doesn’t have a good reason to worry, after what happened _

_ Whatever _ . Peter quickly pushed that thought away, jumping off the building and swinging off.

It was getting kind of late, Peter decided, landing on a roof after taking one last swing around the block.

All in all, pretty quiet around Queens today. No more people to help or bike thieves or anything.

He should be getting out of costume and hitching the subway to Manhattan and OsCorp tower.

Peter was about to crawl down into an alley when his enhanced hearing picked up something in the distance.

**_BOOM!_ **

“What the…”

An explosion went off and Peter looked up to see a blue fireball flare-up in the distance.

Excited at the prospect of something actually happening, Peter jumped off the building and went swinging.

After a few swings he landed on a roof and could already see the scene.

Some sort of armored transport vehicle had been knocked over on its side. The road had been torn apart by the explosion and there were small blue fires all over the place.

Peter jumped down to have a closer look.

The transport driver had just dragged himself out.

“You okay there, man?”

Then, at the edge of his mind, his spider-sense tingled and a loud, growling sound filled the air. It sounded like Mr. Stark’s private plane the time he had taken Peter on a mission when they first met. Only way louder and rougher, like it was made by scrap metal.

Peter looked up, only to be pushed down by a powerful gust of air. The source of the noise had just come into view.

The first thing he saw were the two gigantic metal wings with turbines placed into them. They were strapped onto the back of a man in a leather jacket, wearing an oxygen mask. On the man’s foot were two massive mechanical claws.

“A mechanical vulture guy… _ that _ … is officially the most insane thing I have ever seen…” Peter muttered to himself.

Then the man lowered himself onto the vehicle. With the scraping sound of metal being torn, his mechanical claws violently dug into it. Then he slowly began to ascend.

Peter snapped out of his astonishment.  _ Can’t let that guy get away! _

With a leap he jumped onto the – now in the air and in the vulture guy’s claws – vehicle.

“Now buddy, I obviously love the whole technology inspired by nature thing, but I think you should be using it for something different,” Peter said, glad that his feet and hands were sticky as he swayed in the wind. “Ever heard of the saying,  _ with great power there must also _ -“

The Vulture turned his head towards him with a horrible metal grinding on metal sound, his visor shining a blinding green. “Who are you?”

“Well, I’m just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, now do you mind landing?” Peter pointed to the streets below, which were a blur as they zipped past.

“Thought you were a myth. Stay in your neighborhood, kid, you don’t get what’s going on here. Don’t want to have to hurt you.”

“Sorry, I only take cliché threats from mammals and insects, not birds.” Peter grabbed one of the claws, trying to yank it off. “Don’t think this belongs to you!”

While pulling Peter noticed a marking on the side of the vehicle for the first time. His eyes went wide.

_ That explains the explosion and crazy flying vulture _

_ US Federal Department of Damage Control,  _ it said on the side.

This was going to be even better than he could have imagined. Peter grinned under his mask.

Turned out this wasn’t just any vehicle; it belonged to the top-secret organization Mr. Stark and the government had founded to clean up after the Avengers and to handle any super-advanced weapons or alien tech that came to Earth.

_ Awesome. This must be the kind of stuff Mr. Stark deals with all the time. My first real supervillain! _

Then Peter was snapped out of his thoughts, as the surface, he was on started to shake violently. The vulture guy, apparently objecting to the uninvited passenger, was shaking the vehicle with his claws.

Peter tried everything to stay on board, but the vulture just shook the vehicle more.

_ Totally jinxed it _ , Peter thought as his usually impressive sticking ability failed him. His grip on the claw was ripped off and he started tumbling backward. His stomach dropped as his feet failed to find anything underneath and he began to fall.

* * *

“I don’t think Pete is showing up anymore…” Harry said, stopping to stare at the clock in the busy café outside OsCorp tower. He looked around.

_ Weird, Peter is usually never late. _

Like always, most customers in the cafe were professionally dressed business people or scientists working in the building.

It still made him feel a bit uncomfortable and he preferred to sit in one of the corners, but the place made excellent coffee, so it was fine. Plus, he got things for free, not that it made much of a difference to him. 

“It’s probably his internship, this happened all the time in the summer,” Ned explained with a shrug, taking a large sip from his chocolate shake.

“Must be a lot for Pete.”

“Are you kidding?! A Stark internship is literally the most awesome thing in the world!”

“I guess…” 

_ Of course, I would never be considered for that kind of internship. And I should be jealous, that whole science thing isn’t for me anyway. Not. Jealous. _

“You heard about the new super rare collectors’ Lego set coming out?” Ned asked.

“Oh, yes, I did! I’m getting an early copy. We can assemble it together if you would like.”

“That’s crazy!” Ned said, ‘ _ not being able to contain his excitement _ ’ being an understatement.

Harry smiled.  _ Yeah, assembling it is going to be fun _

Then his eyes caught something.

The TV inside the shop cut to a breaking news story – amateur footage of some sort of man in a winged flying machine with a vehicle in his claws, and a red and blue blur balancing dangerously on top of it.

“That guy is crazy...” Harry muttered, watching the TV closely. Then suddenly the red and blue blur fell off. “Wooo, I hope he’s okay.”

Ned's expression was one of absolutely stunt excitement. “That’s Spider-Man, dude!” he exclaimed. “Watch it, he was probably about to do some awesome web thing, and everything is going to be fine!”

* * *

_ Everything is not fine, it was like the opposite of fine _

He was free-falling and only seconds away from being squashed against the ground like an actual spider.

Then Peter blindly shot a web.

He would have been relieved at the  _ zip _ sound of it connecting if it were not for the shot of pain he felt through his arm as he was pulled along by the web. Looking up, Peter saw that it had stuck right onto the flying vehicle, and he was zipping along with it.

The vulture guy was flying low through the streets of Queens, going between buildings. Peter did his best not to crash into any of them as he went. 

_ Wow, this is crazy _

His arms really hurt, and it was only a matter of time before he was splattered against a building. His strength was fading, and he was about to let go when he stopped.

_ Damage control tech is probably the most dangerous stuff on the planet, and it’s getting stolen by that crazy vulture guy! _

He couldn’t let him get away with all of that. A lot of people would get hurt if those weapons got into the wrong hands and he was the only one who can stop this now.

_ I can stop him, so I have to _

Despite his arms feeling like they were about to fall off, Peter climbed up the web. Then suddenly his spider-sense tingled and Peter looked ahead.

He managed to swing out of the way at the last second as he flew past a tree, and then another and then another. The vulture guy was flying over a park now.

He was carried right through the treetops, small branches whipping against him as he went, leaving a million stings of pain.

His whole body hurt as they finally flew over an open area of the park.

But it hurt so much…Peter’s fingers were ever so slightly loosening.

_ This is so much worse than climbing the rope in gym class without powers ever was _

Then his left hand let go and the only thing keeping him from falling was his right hand’s grip on the web.

Then-

_ The weapons. People would get hurt. _

Against all the pain, Peter swung his left hand back onto the web and started climbing back up onto the vehicle.

All the way up he fought the pain, through the wind clashing against his face and the hurt in his arms. Peter was breathing heavily as he finally crawled his way back to the top.

“Copy that,” the vulture said, seemingly not having noticed Peter. “Got rid of the interruption, should still have enough time to get out before damage control responds. Tell the big man he will have his delivery ready.”

“I-I’ve got to tell you,” Peter wheezed. “That was the craziest thing I’ve ever done. You should quit the supervillain act and start a theme park ride.”

Again, the vicious green eyes snapped to him.

“Activate high-altitude vacuum seal.”

And suddenly they were going up, like way up and fast. Out of the corner of his eyes, Peter saw the park shrink.

_ Okay, I should have really thought more about what to do when I actually got up here. _

Peter quickly shot two webs at the vulture’s wings, but they were dragged down by the speed at which they were ascending before they even got close to anything to connect to.

Peter looked down and suddenly felt dizzy.

_ Air is getting a little tight. _

In a last desperate attempt, he tried pulling at the claw still stuck in the vehicle.

But then he felt weakness overcome his body, and he tumbled. The Air brushed past his face as he began to fall. He saw a blue spot below getting bigger and bigger.

When the impact hit, it didn’t feel any better than hitting the ground. The cold took him as he descended into the depths of the water.


	4. Not quite a hero yet

It was cold. Even in summer the dark blue water felt ice cold.

Slowly his senses came back to him and he blindly swam up, desperate for air.

When he finally reached the surface, Peter inhaled heavily.

He crawled out of the water and onto the lakeshore, feeling completely exhausted. After a few moments of gasping for air on the park grass, he forced himself to get up. The bitter cold felt even worse now with the evening breeze. He slowly carried his shivering body through the darkness, uselessly trying to warm himself by rubbing his arms. 

Peter was totally not sulking, as he sat on the swing set in a playground near the park. He had taken off his mask and was now wringing it out, water droplets falling to the ground while his feet dangled in the air.

_ Great _ , he thought bitterly.  _ Getting humiliated in front of Liz, being Spider-Man changing nothing about Flash pushing me around, having my first real supervillain fight and blowing it. And now I have to get home in a soaking wet onesie. _

_ Totally. Not. Sulking _

Then he looked up to see the outline of the vulture and his prize flying off.

_ These weapons could be used to hurt people and all that will be on me…  _

There was a dark stinging pain through his whole body. 

_ My fault again _

But then he suddenly noticed something dashing towards the vulture. At first, Peter had the stupid thought that it was a shooting star with a tail of light behind it, but as he looked closer, he saw-

“Mr. Stark!” Peter exclaimed.

The red and yellow Iron Man armor was flying after the vulture. Peter watched in awe as Mr. Stark's suit flew circles around its much slower target, shooting laser beams that lit up the night sky as he went. The Vulture, probably realizing the game was up, dropped the vehicle and made a break for it.

Iron Man hovered briefly in the air, probably contemplating pursuing, but then he quickly flew after the falling damage control vehicle. _Probably because that tech hitting the city would be really, really bad,_ Peter thought _._

Just like that the light show was over and Iron Man was out of view. Peter tried to spot him for another few moments, before giving up and returning to (not) sulking on the swing.

_ At least the bad guys didn’t get the tech, right? _

Then he suddenly heard a buzzing sound coming towards him.

Mr. Stark, probably having just set the vehicle down safely, made a beeline for him. With a  _ whoosh _ sound, the armor stopped, hovering in front of him and looking down at Peter sitting on the swing.

“You’re okay?” was the first thing Mr. Stark said through the speakers of the suit.

“Yeah,” Peter answered. He felt the same jittery excitement he felt every time he met Mr. Stark. “Mr. Stark, you won’t believe it! That was the craziest thing ever! That vulture guy was about to get away with the tech, so I jumped onto it, right? And then I fell off, but I shot a web and then I had to dodge all the stuff and climbed back up! Then the vulture guy went all scary and we suddenly went like a thousand feet in the air and-“

“Breathe, kid,” Mr. Stark cut him off. “I just have one question; what did you think you were doing?”

“What I was doing? I was trying to take down the bad guy,” Peter said, confused at the question.

The armor’s helmet shook. “Let me rephrase that. Why did you think it was a good idea to jump into a fight like that?”

“Wh-what? That guy wanted to steal that tech.” He motioned vaguely in the direction the vulture had escaped. “I had to take him down.”

“Oh! You’re going around taking people down now!” Mr. Stark said sarcastically.

“Mr. Stark, if that tech gets in the wrong hands, people would get hurt. I had to do something!” 

“You, not-old-enough-to-shave teenage superhero, just  _ had  _ to do something?” Mr. Stark snapped at him. Peter was taken aback.

“W-what was I supposed to…” He struggled for words.

“There are people who handle that sort of thing,” Mr. Stark said, still with an edge in his voice. “Do you think I would let people steal stuff that I’m responsible for protecting?”

“I-I guess- no, of course not, I was just…”

There was a mechanically distorted sigh through the suit’s speakers. “Kid,” he said, calmer now. “This is so far above your paygrade.”

“But you had to come here so it was super urgent, right?” Peter said, suddenly getting an idea. “If I hadn’t been there, he might have gotten away?”

“Oh, I’m not here.” Mr. Stark said, his normal slightly sarcastic tone back. The Iron Man mask lifted to reveal an empty suit. “Conference in Genosha, lucky thing this place has wifi.”

_ So, Mr. Stark wasn’t actually here talking to me _ . Peter didn’t know why his heart sank.  _ Reality check, Mr. Stark’s way too busy for me. _

“Anyway, struggling to keep up and then falling into a lake doesn’t qualify as helping, kid.”

Peter’s head fell at that observation.  _ I tried _ …

“Peter, there are a bunch of heroes jumping around, saving the world. We got it covered.” Then the armor snapped its fingers to get him to look up. “Here’s what you should do. Stay close to the ground, you know like that time you helped an old lady cross the street. Build up your hero game with that friendly neighborhood stuff.”

“I can help a lot more than that!”  _ I must. I have to. _

“Saw that,” Mr. Stark said simply. “Anyway, got to go, have some safe friendly neighborhood fun, hang out with Ted or whatever his name is and say hello to aunt hottie for me.” The suit repulsors started up. “End call.”

“Wait, Mr. Stark-“

“The boss is no longer connected.” The robotic voice of F.R.I.D.A.Y, the suit’s A.I. said. Peter watched the suit zip off into the night sky. 

He was left on the swing, looking after the suit as it made its way towards Manhattan, probably to Stark Tower. He slowly rocked back and forth.

_ Definitely not sulking. _

_ Build up my hero game and hang out with Ned, thanks for that tip, Mr. Stark. And say hello to-  _ Peter shuddered, repeating the creepy nickname in his head.

Then his eyes went wide. He leaped off the swing, suddenly painfully aware of how late it was.

He went swinging home as fast as he could.

_ Aunt May’s going to kill me. _

* * *

There was the sound of engines growling and a moment later the boss, massive metal wings on his back, flew in through the opening in the warehouse.

As he landed on the platform and the wings automatically locked themselves into the holding machine, the chubby man in the workshop held onto the Chitari cores he had been tinkering with to keep them from flying all over the place.

The boss stomped down the ramp, taking off his oxygen mask. “God damn it!” He threw the mask into a shelf full of spare parts for Kree battle armor. The tinkerer winced as it all came crashing down, and most of the other people in the workshop turned to look too.

“God damn it!” the boss repeated, before stopping and massaging his nose, thinking. “Under the radar, out of these big jobs, that’s how we survived for years. Now we’ve got damage control trying to bust us.” The boss was pacing up and down the workshop. “ _ Big man of crime _ … I should have known that was getting in too deep.”

“Ehh, boss?” the tinkerer said. The boss whipped towards him. “Your daughter was texting you about some school club meeting she was hosting at your house.” He pointed to the phone on the table.

“What did I tell you about looking at my phone?” He snatched it up from the table.

“Sorry, it was just there, and I saw it. You know I’m a curious person by nature.”

The boss gave him a weirded out look before typing something into his phone and putting it into his pocket. “We just need to,” he muttered, more to himself than anyone. “We’ve got to make this week’s delivery; can we do that?”

“Without another take? Most of it, probably.” They were short on energy cores, but weapons themselves should be enough. Why any buyer would need so much of this stuff was beyond him.

“Most of it, right. We need to try getting as much we can,” he said. “Scrape everything together. Those defunct cores from last time, try fixing up some of them.”

“But weren’t you worried about that blowing up the whole place if something goes wrong?” They had been doing this for years, basically, since the Avengers causing destruction was a thing, and he had never seen the boss like this.

“Do it, fix them up.” The boss stormed towards his office.

* * *

The hallway of the apartment building was pitch black as Peter fiddled with his key, trying to get it into the lock. He didn’t want to risk turning on the light.

Peter suppressed a yawn; he could hear his bed calling out to him. His hands were barely able to hold up the key, let alone get the stupid door open. Between the day he had and swinging back here at what must be the fastest he had ever gone, he was really done in.

Finally, he managed to get the key in the lock. He had figured his best option was to very slowly and quietly get in. To his surprise it seemed like that plan might just have worked when the light in their apartment was switched off.

_ Maybe May has gone to bed?  _ Peter hoped. Of course, there had been several calls from her on his phone,  _ but maybe she had just figured I was with Ned and Harry or something? _

He inched the door close in slow-motion and took very careful steps through the darkness. Just a bit more to his room, this would be the worst time to step on a Lego brick if he had left any lying around.

_ Still no sign of Aunt May, maybe she really did go to sleep _

He was about to step into his room when there was a buzzing sound. Peter almost jumped, his heart pounding at record speed.

It took him a moment to realize that it was only his phone going off.

**Ned:**

_ Yo, how was the SI internship? That’s where u were, right? _

A shudder went over Peter. He had totally forgotten about meeting Ned and Harry.

**Peter:**

_ Sry for ditching you, dude! Something big came up and they needed me _

**Ned:**

_ It’s cool, dude no problem I mean SI?! Coolest thing ever _

That was a very typical Ned reaction, he could almost imagine him saying it in his rambling way, but Peter couldn’t help but feel bad leaving them hanging.  _ What kind of friend does that? _

_ But I had to help, right? I needed to keep the tech from being used to hurt people, even if my contribution didn’t really turn out great in the end. _

_ School, friends, Aunt May, and Spider-Man. Didn’t think this would all be so complicated! _

**Ned:**

BTW did you see the crazy stuff that went down today?

Ned sent him a link to an online news article with a blurry amateur video. From the thumbnail he could already tell that it was of the Vulture’s heist.

Ned:

_ SM and IM team-up! _

Peter:

_ More like IM doing all the work. Spidy kind of sucked _

Peter didn’t really know why he wrote that, but he felt so frustrated. If that guy had gotten away, all the people hurt with the weapons would have been on him…

Ned:

_ No way dude! He was way important! SM slowed the guy down so IM could take him out. Bet SM will be an Avenger fast! _

That…that did make Peter smile and also think. The Vulture guy wouldn’t have been stupid enough to steal the tech if Mr. Stark was anywhere close. So maybe he did make a little difference?

Peter had just put his phone back in his pocket when suddenly his spider-sense kicked in. This time Peter really did jump, as the light was turned on.

Standing in the living room was Aunt May, her hands on her hips and her foot tapping on the ground. Her expression contained the burning anger of a thousand suns. There was a hint of bloodshot red in her eyes under her big round glasses.

_ I am so done. _

“Hi, Aunt May.”

May took a deep breath. “Where.  _ The. Hell _ . Were you?” The words weren’t loud but they shook like an earthquake.

“I-I’m sorry, I just got caught up with-with the Stark Internship,” The words came flooding out. “They-they needed me and.” Her expression told Peter that she was anything but impressed by his excuses. “I’m sorry I didn’t text you, I know I promised and-“

She stopped him by simply breathing deeply.

Peter’s heart stung badly. Not only because of how grounded for life he was (although that wasn’t exactly a treat either), but because he knew what he had done to her.

Now Aunt May had never screamed at him, of course, she had been mad a couple of times and when she did both Peter and Ben had known to not get in her way, but those arguments were super rare.

But standing there Peter was fully convinced that he might not make it out of that apartment in one piece.  _ Yeah, and I would kind of deserve it. _

Then without warning May rushed forward and hugged him, so tightly the air was knocked out of his lungs.

“What?” For a moment Peter was too confused for a reaction.

_ What is happening? _

Over his shoulder, he heard May swallow; had she been crying?

Guilt made his whole body feel weak, like throwing up. He had made her wait.

_ Just like she had waited for him that night. My fault. _

“I know,” May swallowed again, as she slowly let go of him and looked him in the eyes. “I know things haven’t been easy since…”

Peter looked down, as much as he tried not to think about that,  _ no they haven’t been easy since. _

“I’m not stupid, Peter. I know what you have been getting up to.”

And Peter’s heart decided it would stop beating. It couldn’t be, it couldn’t, it was over if May knew, it was literally the end of the world.

“I know that you snuck out all the time during summer, that you spent a lot of time alone when you told me you were over at Ned’s house,” May said. “And I didn’t say anything because I thought you needed time to think.  _ Hell _ , I really needed time to think.”

_ Wait _ , now Peter didn’t understand anything anymore. Then his heart started beating again with the faintest bit of hope.  _ So, she doesn’t know? _

For a moment he wanted to be relieved, then he remembered the conversation they were having.

“Sorry, May, I-“

“No,” May cut him off. “I mean it’s not okay that you didn’t tell me. Not at all, but I get it.”

“So…” Peter struggled for words. This didn’t change the situation, he still messed up. “You’re still mad at me, right?”

“Oh, I am,” May said, bluntly. “But we’re going to need to do things differently.”

“What-what do you mean?”

“From now on you get home by ten and if you don’t you better be texting me that you’re on your way.”

Peter opened his mouth for protest, but her look shot down that idea fast and answered any question of what would happen if he didn’t follow the rule.

_ Grounded for life? Yeah, if I’m lucky _

“Peter.” Her voice and expression turned softer. “We are a team. We can only do this together.” Peter heard a bit of helplessness in her voice, and a sting of pain shot through his whole body. He felt just as helpless.

“I promise,” Peter tried to sound as firm as he could. “I promise you May.”

_ I won’t let her feel like that again, never, not again _

“Good.” May nodded. 

There was an awkward moment where both of them stood there in silence, not sure what to say or do after what just happened between them.

Then Peter’s stomach rumbled loudly. Peter's hand moved over it as he felt the pain of hunger. It took him until that moment to realize that being in action all day and barely eating anything would catch up to him.

“I kept some meatloaf in the oven for you,” May said quickly.

They moved to the kitchen and Aunt May got his dinner ready.

“You’re a lifesaver!” Peter said, showing a big slice into his mouth. May chuckled at him.

_ Who would have guessed that one-day Aunt May’s famous (more like infamous) meatloaf would taste like the best thing ever? _

While he was eating, they chatted about the day. May told him funny stories about patients in the hospital, and Peter recapped his day between bites of meatloaf.

“Yeah, you know. It was school, it sucked.”

He left it at that and deliberately tiptoed around the embarrassing parts of the school day (and all the Spider-Man stuff obviously), so he mostly told her about the new subjects and teachers they would have this year.

“…and that’s why neutrino partials can’t interact with physical substances. I don’t know why they would hire a teacher that doesn’t understand that!” Peter said, outraged. 

May laughed, Peter knew probably more at him ranting than at the actual situation. Physics wasn’t her thing. But Peter enjoyed laughing with her.

He was almost done with the meatloaf. Probably a record for how long a single human had ever survived eating Aunt May’s meatloaf in one sitting.

_ Sure, maybe this year everything changing in school didn’t work out too great. Not to mention that Liz would probably laugh every time she sees me, and that Flash and his gang would be after me all year. Like always… _

_ Also, I ditched my friends, which really sucks, but I can make it up to them. _

_ And, yeah, maybe Spidey totally blew it against his first supervillain, but as Ned said, he helped a little bit, right? Okay, I might not quite be a hero yet, but I’ll get there. _

_ Maybe this day wasn’t great but I have the best aunt in the universe to come home to. _

_ Guess it’s all a bit give and take. _

Peter smiled at May and ate the last piece of his mediocre meatloaf.

_ Nope, can’t think of anything better. _

* * *

**In The Next Issue of** _Spider-Man: Swinging Home_ : Peter faces the high school storm as teachers won’t give him a break, Flash is still determined to make his life hell, and Harry is having a terrible day but a new ambition. Also Peter meets the newest member of the academic decathlon team.

Turns out his secret identity and school don’t mix as easily as he thought-

Can Peter manage all that comes with his two lives?

Find out next time!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this week’s chapters! If you have any comments or feedbacks, I would love to hear them  
> Also, if anyone would like to do a little bit of beta reading for this fic that would be awesome. But totally non comital of course, you can beta read as much or as little as you like  
> See you next week with the start of issue 2!  
> Stay frosty!

**Author's Note:**

> Hey thanks for reading the first chapter!
> 
> I'm probably going to upload the next one tomorrow and then keep to a weekly upload schedule after that.  
> If you have any criticism or general comments, I would love to read them! 
> 
> Until next time, stay frosty!


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